Poverty and getting by in deprived neighbourhoods: evidence from over 12 years research in Teesside

Professor Tracy Shildrick Social Futures Institute, Teesside University, UKt.a.shildrick@tees.ac.uk

‘We are apt to believe that once employment is secured, once what seems like regular work is obtained, all must be well...yet we forget how terribly near the margins of disaster the man walks. The spectre of illness and disability is never far...//...many workers were absolutely poor. More were so near the poverty line that they were constantly passing over it. Life for a third of these workers is an unending struggle from day to day to keep abreast of the most ordinary needs’.

Employment insecurity (1)

‘Repeated engagement in jobs failed to provide routes away from poverty largely because of the weaknesses of the opportunities available in the local job market...The predominant experience was of moving in and out of low paying jobs but never moving far from poverty...Wider aspects of disadvantage (e.g. ill health) led interviewees to lose and leave jobs...day to day life was a juggling act and interviewees faced significant financial hardship’

Employment insecurity (2)

Two studies in Middlesbrough Lady Bell (1907) At The Works: A study of a manufacturing

town (Middlesbrough) Devon, David & Charles Publishers Limited

Shildrick, T et al (2010) The Low Pay, No Pay Cycle: Understanding recurrent poverty York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

4 long-term studies of youth transitions & social exclusion (fieldwork 1998-2003 – and then 2008/9): ESRC & JRF

Most recent study, Shildrick et al 2010, JRF Low-pay, No-pay: Understanding Recurrent Poverty

Fifth study (forthcoming 2012) ‘Intergenerational cultures of worklessness?’

In some of poorest neighbourhoods (Teesside & now Glasgow) 263 people interviewed (with ‘hard to reach’, disadvantaged young

and older individuals ) Life history approach (e.g. education, un/employment, housing,

family leisure, crime, drug use, health)

The low-pay, no-pay cycle Unemployment = common & recurrent

…but so was employment

In-work poverty:

‘I struggle, really struggle because by the time I pay me bills, gas, electric and water rates, TV, all that, I'm left with a couple of pound that's it...I wanted to work. If I didn't work I think I'd go crazy… I mean, to be honest, somebody in my situation, I would probably be better off on benefits’.(Winnie, 44, currently doing two part-time cleaning jobs)

… low-pay, no-pay cycle partly driven by strong commitment to work/ stigma of unemployment

Virtually no positive comments about being unemployed/ on welfare

Strong working-class views about self-reliance, hard work & family respectability

Wide-spread opposition to being - and to be seen as - ‘a dole wallah’, to be on benefits

Political onslaught...

Subsistence/survival for young mothers... Researcher: where do you shop? Kate and Kelly: Netto (together) Kelly: Cos it’s the cheapest place we can go. Or Kwicksave or

the freezer shop because like Morrisons – you’ve got to be a millionaire to go in there!

Researcher: Do you think there are certain shops or certain foods the kids miss out on?

Kelly: Yeah a lot, like fruit and veg Kate: And yoghurt and things like that Kelly: Yoghurts yeah – we buy yoghurts but only in Netto ‘cos

they’re cheaper. Maybe once a week. She’ll have veg and that’s on a Sunday when we do a Sunday dinner

Budgeting and planning for daily essentials

‘I walk to my daughters and I’ll ask Katie to give me a meal. I go to Sainsbury’s about 9 o’clock and look for all the reduced, and you’ll buy a loaf of bread and it’ll last you for four days, reduced eggs they’ll last you a week I got half a dozen free range woodland eggs for 20p the other day. So you’ve got 6 eggs. A loaf of bread reduced vegetables whatever it is and I’ll have vegetables with rice, bread and egg’ (Amanda, aged 48)

Mothers feeling guilty…

‘I like to be able to take the kids away but I can’t afford it. The only place we go is Scarborough (to stay with sister). I’d like to go to a caravan site with ‘em, like Primrose Valley, but I can’t afford to do it. I’d like to take them places but they have never been away’ (Dawn, 30)

‘If the kids come along and say Mam can I have £3 or £4 and I’ve only got £2 I feel guilty’ (Linda, 33)

The ‘benefits trap’ or the benefits gap?

‘We were borrowing money off family and living off my family allowance which doesn’t even cover the gas and electric. So we were borrowing money off family and getting loans off people coming to the door just to keep us. In the end we went to them and said, 'we need some help'. We should really have been entitled to a crisis loan but they said we weren't entitled so we had to claim a budgeting loan where you have to pay it back. They took so long! They are just not bothered there's a family there with no money or any type of income’ (Mary, 30).

Debts driven by necessity & wanting to provide for children

‘If I want clothes or the kids want anything, it’s always like getting the Provident book out [a door-step loans agency], you know? I would, like, have to miss something to get something, if you know what I mean? It’s awful. There’s never anything in my purse. It’s always empty. If someone said ‘do you want to go somewhere?’ I couldn’t just get up and go out and do it’ (Sophie, 30).

Strengths of ‘poor places’ ‘Living here, it’s brilliant….If you’re

stuck, someone’ll help you’ (Martin, 20).

Mutual care of social networks of family & friends made life liveable – and generated strong sense of ‘social inclusion - under conditions of poverty/ ‘social exclusion’e.g. caring for others, informal child care, loans of money, protection from criminal victimisation, reparation after crime, job search, leisure life, emotional support, etc.

Poverty and welfare in Teesside: history, class & place Unemployment is not a ‘life-style

choice’ People wanted jobs – but jobs they got

were low-paid & insecure Poverty remains even when people are

in jobs Multiple hardships & disadvantages

impact on people in ‘poor neighbourhoods’ – which can limit people’s prospects & well-being

Yet these neighbourhoods have many strengths

Poverty and welfare in Teesside: history, class & place

Policy & practice can help tackle disadvantage A key issue being the shortage of jobs, particularly better

quality employment (as a route out of poverty & towards security and well-being)

References to Teesside Studies

Johnston, L., MacDonald, R., Mason, P., Ridley, L., and Webster, C. et al. (2000) Snakes & Ladders, York: JRF.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/jr090-young-people-exclusion.pdf

Webster, C., Simpson, D., MacDonald, R., Abbas, A., Cieslik, M., Shildrick, T., and Simpson, M. (2004) Poor Transitions, Bristol: Policy Press/JRF.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/1861347340.pdf

MacDonald, R., & Marsh, J. (2005) Disconnected Youth? Growing up in Britain’s Poor Neighbourhoods, Palgrave.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disconnected-Youth-Growing-Britains-Neighbourhoods/dp/1403904871

Shildrick, T., MacDonald, R., Webster, C. and Garthwaite, K. (2010) The Low-pay, no-pay Cycle: understanding recurrent poverty, York: JRF.

http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/unemployment-pay-poverty-full.pdf

Shildrick, T., MacDonald, R., Furlong, A., Roden, J., and Crow, R. (2012, forthcoming) Intergenerational Cultures of Worklessness: Popular Myth or Miserable Reality?, York: JRF.